Indicating device



INVENTOR) rm? 11 1214 ye/ BY lljjA flgw/zui RNEYS July 16, 1940. c.JOLAS El Al.

INDICATING DEVICE Filed Feb. 13, 1939 Patented July 16, 1940 PATENTOFFICE 2.208.263 mmoa'rme DEVICE- Uarl Jclas, Darmstadt,

and won sum, rem

tort-on-the-Main, Germany, assignors to Carl Schenck Eisc l esserei n.

Darmstadt, G. m. b. 8., Darmstadt, Germany,

a corporation oi Germ Application February 13,1939, Serial No.

any

In Germany February 18, 1938 Claims. (01. 235-1) This inyention relatesto an indicating mechanism imFolving counting wheels or similarelements, in particular for automatic scales, in which the valuerepresenting the response of the device 5/ is transferred by anadjusting mechanism to the counting mechanism, at which it can either bedirectly observed by the operator-or by which it can be printed.

In the present "application the invention is shown embodied in anautomatic scale, though it is obvious that it"might be embodied indevices other than scales. In indicating and counting mechanisms,especially for scales, the result must be indicated. 115 with anexactness commensurate with the order of the scale tolerance whichappears on the or dinary visible dial of the scale. In order to operatea number of counting wheels, one for each. digit of the resultingfigure, it was necessary heretofore to employ a comparatively highgearing between the scale mechanism and the numeral-indicating orprinting wheels for the values of the lowest decimal digits, because itis necessary to very rapidly set the wheels to the position indicatingthe result. During the adjusting period this necessitates the typewheels running at very high speeds. Thereby the exactness, as well asthe life of the mechanism, is seriously impaired. Besides, owing to thehigh speed of c the type wheels and their operating elements,comparatively large dynamic forces are created which result in acomparatively large'momentum of the operating parts, so that when theyare stopped suddenly at the desired point, the material is subject togreat stresses and overrunning is diflicult to avoid. Errors in theprinted or indicated result are introduced, especially by the likelyoverrunning of the type wheels, which can be avoided in the present-daymechanism only 40 by taking the over'runninginto consideration in theconstruction and operation of the wheels.

Such errors, however, cannot be entirely eliminated, because the speedof the type wheels depends on a number of uncertain contributingfactors, among others the varying loads to be weighed. Lastly, throughhigh gearing, backlash in the intermediate gear wheels is diflicult toavoid and is likely ,to increase owing to the great stresses to-whichsuch mechanisms are subject. Various attempts have "been made to removethe foregoing ,dimculties. ,For instance, adjusting devices for typewheels are known in which the speed or the wheels is slowed down beforethey reach their final indicating position, so that is the countingmechanism can be stopped to indi cate exactly the response of the scalewithout imparting stresses to the counting mechanism. This, however,does not remove the disadvantages of high gearing, and besides rendersthe entire mechanism very complicated. In other'counting and printingmechanisms oi. this character, only a part or the result is transmittedto the counting mechanism, whereas the units in the larger value digitsare indicated separately and in a different manner. It is true that thisshortens the running time for the type wheels, but the detrimentalinfluence of the dynamic forces is not removed in this type ofmechanism.

According to the present invention, the speed ratio between the elementsof the actual weighing device and those which operate the type wheels isincreased only suficiently to permit the type wheel mechanism to bepositioned with certainty for the smallest numerical value to beincheated by the type wheels or tobe printed. Accordingly, the speed ofthe indicating element for the Smallest decimal value becomes smallerthan is necessary in the devices heretofore suggested in the art.Therefore, the gearing he tween the weighing device proper and the firstindicator drive gear may be maintained comparatively low, and therebythe dynamic forces and thus the forces required for stopping the wheelsare considerably reduced. As a consequence, the wear and tear on theseparts is considerably reduced, and thus their life is extended, while onthe other hand the final value is indicated with mubh greategexactness.

Starting from the moving element which is directly connected with theweighing mechanism, and which for the present purpose constitutes theprime mover for the indicating mechanism, the result 01' the weighing istransmitted separately to the diflerent type wheels or to diflerentgroups of type wheels, according to their decimal position in theresult. Each type wheel thereby traverses the range of the digit inwhich it is positioned only 'once, that is to say, each type wheel makesonly one revolution so that the speed of each wheel is comparatively lowand yet a quick adjustment oithe entire indicating and countingmechanism becomes possible. In the drawing a practical form of theinvention is illustrated. In this drawing- Fig. 1 represents a face viewof a numeral-indicating mechanilunwhich can be used as a printingmechanism 11' desired-together with the appertaining elements by whichthe type wheels are moved and set for the final result.

Fig. 2 represents a side elevation of the device, Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 represents in larger scale the toothed disc which serves forpositioning the higher value decimal digit, and

Figs. 4 d and 4 show the device for positioning the lower value decimaldigits in three difierent operating positions. I

' The motion of the scale, for instance the throw of a pendulumindicator (not shown here) is either directly or indirectly transmittedby means of the rack her i to the pinion 2 (Fig. 2) fixed on an arbor 3.On this arbor are also fixed the serrated disc 6 and toothed disc 20 sothat both rotate together with pinion 2. Disc 0 is provided withfineserrations 5 and cooperates with a positioning pawl also providedwith fine teeth and mounted on a lever arm *8 which, owing to its smallthrow, moves pawl element 6. practically in radial direction toward andaway from disc 0.

By means of serrated pawl element 6, disc 6 can 7 be set in givenpositions when lever l is depressed.

That is to say, when the pawl element 0 descends onto teeth 5,'disc l isturned slightly in one or the other direction until the teeth of thepawl and of the disc properly come into mesh. Since disc 5' is fixed onarbor 3, together with disc 20, the latter alsobecomes set in the samegiven position. Disc 2t cooperates with a positioning pawl 2d andasub-unit setting pawl 28. Posi-' tioning pawl 2d as well as lever "B inFig. 1 are indivlduafly spring-controlled tending to engage theirrespective discs (see, for instance, spring 00 of pawl 29) and arecontrolled bygineans of cams 29 and i respectively which'normally holdthe pawls from the wheels, but when operated permit the ement of the'pawls with their apper discs-t This occurs as soon as the weighingoperation is completed. As will be noted from Fig. e the toothed disc 20has comparatively thinjelongated teeth equal in number to the number ofdigit units contained on higher decimal place numeral wheel M. Sub-unitsetting pawl 2i. is loosely mounted .on arbor 3 and normally held.againsta' fixed stop 23 by means of a spring '22. To pawl 28 isattached a gear 7 wheel dl'which, by means of a train of gears 25,

it, drives the numeral discs 28, 28 which are fined togetherand containtogether a division of one unit of wheel l0 into twenty steps, each steprepresenting five sub-units of the units of wheelidiS-95). Thus whenpawl 2i has tray ersed, for in {*ig. 4, the angular distance between thetwo teeth 20*, 20 of disc 20, numeral wheels 28, 20 have made onerevolution. In other words, assuming wheel id has marked on it as unitsthe tenth values oi the total range to be weighed, wheels 28 and 28;respectively indicate together for each division or step one twentieth(0.05) of each unit value oi wheel fldin other words 0.005 of the rangeor I V I Positioning pawl 20, as will be noted from Fig.

2, is wide enough to cover the pathof: the teeth of disc at. as well asthat ofthe sub-unit setting pawl 20. It now, for instance by the descentof positioning. pawl 6 through strong spring power, discs 45 and 20 havebeen set in the position which they have assumed during the weighingoperation, for instance so that disc 20 is in a position with its teethrelative to sub-unit setting pawl 2! as shown in Fig.4, andif-now thepositioning pawl 29 is released by its cam and descends under strongspring power, it will engage pawl 2| and move the latter clockwise untilthe' positioning c ooses 2%,,25, 26 would move the numeral wheels 28, 28

only a very small distance, say for instance 0L005 weighing units. Ifthe load being weighed should have moved the teeth of disc 20, forinstance,

so that when disc 20 is set in final position subunit setting pawl '21!would become located midway between two teeth, and positioning pawl 20descends, pawl would be moved clockwise half the angular distancebetween two teeth of disc 20 until pawl it strikes the next tooth ofdisc 20 in clockwise direction and thereforemoves the numeral .wheels20, 20 about revolution and accordingly to show in the present exampleabout 0.055 weighing units. In Fig: 4 is shown a relative positionbetween pawl 28 and one of the teeth of disc 20, in which, on thedescent of pawl 29, pawl 28 is moved almost the entire angular distancebetween two teeth of disc 20, which might in the present exampleindicate 0.095 weighing units. As soon as the weighing operation isfinished, the pawl-lifting cams are brought into action again and leveri and pawl 29 are lifted ofi their respective discs so that adjustingpawl 25 is pulled back by spring 22 against stop 23, and the type wheels28, 20 are returned to their normal or no- -value indicating position.

The type wheel M for the nexthigher decimal position, in ,thepresentexample the tenth of the unit. to be weighed and indicated, isgeared by means of the gear train ll, i2, is at the ratio 1:1 to atoothed disc i0, shown in detail in Fig. 3.

' This latter disc is free on arbor 0 but is coupled to disc 6 by meansoi a yie coupling shown in detail in Fig.3. For this purpose, a detent 0is provided on disc 8', which is engaged by two levers i5 and it,pivotally attached to disc i0, but" eccentrically, at 05 The two leversare held clamped against detent 8 by means oi as spring 0. In addition,two stops ill and it are provided on disc it, stop ii for lever 65 andstop it for lever it. Thus, assuming for the moment that disc i is setin position by pawl t as aforedescribed, and a positioning pawl it inFig. 3, by m of a strong spring power (not shown), should descend in thedirection of the arrow onto wheel i0 and should encounter the side ofone oi its teeth, reiinstance the left-hand side orthe left-hand toothor the pair its, wheel 50 would be forced to rotate clockwise andthereby stop ill-would take along lever it) and thus put spring 9 underfurther tension until pawl 59 has reached the bottom between the twoadjoining teeth oi wheel 10. The gearing between disc 50 and type wheel56 as aforementioned is such that when the disc it) has performed onerevolution,

type wheel M has also performed one'revolution. Therefore, whenpositioning pawl i9 descends between two of the ten teeth or wheel l0,the\ corresponding tenth numeral value on wheel "lid is presented to theeye of the observer or into printing position. By this arrangement, thetype wheel its ten nnmeraltypes, even if the toothed disc 4 4% iscorrectly tioned with rt to each of 1 position in accordance with theload being f weighed for reading (or printing) the final result down tothe last provided decimal value. After wise as the case may be whenbalance, in x the units or the tenths, may be observed by the asoaaasreading (or printing) the result, positioning pawl I 9 is raised by itscam I 9 and spring 8 pulls wheel In back into the normal position withrespect to disc 4 (shown in Fig. 3) in which both levers l5 and I 6engage stop 8. It now the remaining positioning pawls 8 and 29 areraised, all type wheels can returnto their no-value indicatingpositions.

In order to avoid erroneous printing in case the maximum load for whichthe scale is designed should be exceeded, or in case printing isattempted when there is no load on the scale, a so-calied overload andno-load lock is provided for the type wheels. A lock is arranged foravoiding such errors in the smaller decimal digits, such as are onnumeral wheels 28 and 28*, in the following manner. The tooth of disc20, which would come into registry with pawl 28 at overload or at noload, is not provided with a point as the remaining teeth of disc 20,but is provided with an extensive peripheral portion such as is shown atin Figs. 4* and 4 when this tooth has moved into the path of positioningpawl 29 and this pawl should descend, it would prevented ,i'romperiphery of tooth 20 and could therefore not move sub-unit setting pawl2|. Since the latter is normally held by spring 22 against fixed stop23, and since thus the two type wheels 28, ii! are held in their zeroposition, no numerical value would be observed (or could be printed) Inorder to indicate that no value is to be indicated or printed in thatposition of the mechanism, this zero position of each provided with aparticular character, for instance c: as shown in Fig. 2. 'Of course,when the assembled, all the gears must be meshed so that the character1: appears when all gears are in position.

A similar no-value indicating mechanism is provided for the type wheelll. As will be noted from Fig. 3, one of the teeth of toothed disc I llis split into two teeth III, III. The gearing to meshed so that the mark:0 on type visible or in printing position when disc I0 is in a positionin which it presents the interstitial spacebetween the two teeth III, idto pawl [9. If this interstitial space should not be presented exactlyin line with pawl l9, but should merely be within range of this pawl,disc I 0 is moved slightly clockwise or counterclockpawl l9 descends, sothat the numeral wheel I or the other direction until the rectlypresented in observation or printing position.

Wheels H, 28 and 28', shown and described, are merely indicative of themanner in which type or numeral wheels may be adjusted. The manner inwhich the printing may actually occur forms no part of the presentinvention, and may be accomplished by any conventional mechanism. Forinstance, the type wheels I4, 28 and 28 may be disposed in theprin'tin'g mechanism so that the entire result of the weighing isprinted. They maybe arranged, however, also so that only a part of thetotal weighing yalue adjusted by rack bar l is transmitted to theprinting mechanism, while the particular the hlghcr values such asoperator directlyon a dial in the conventional manner or may betransferred to another sepa-' rate printing mechanism of a charactersimilar descending beyond thenumeral indicators to present the typewheel may beno-value transmitting is moved in one mark a: is cor-' imalunit indicator to that shown in the drawing. It the result oi theweighing is not to be printed, but merely visually observed, the samearrangement as shown may be used, but if necessary the numerals on thenumeral wheels may be made more easily readable by conventionalmagnifying glasses such as are now frequently used in scales.

It'is also possible to print the result 01 the weighing and to make itreadable at the same time directly by means of magnification. It is alsopossible to transier the indication made in the manner described to anadding mechanism by which the results of consecutive weighings may beadded.

We claim:

1. In automatically indicating scales or the like, a numeral-settingmechanism comprising a numeral indicator for each digit of the value toor movement relatively to said operating means within a subdecimal rangeor the movement of said operating means and geared to operate the lowerdecimal unit subdecimal decimal valuesthe values indicatedv by thehigher decimal unit indicator.

2. In automatically indicating scales or the like,a-numeral-settingmechanism comprising a numeral indicator for each digitof the value to be indicated, means actuated by the value-determiningforce of the scale for operating the numeral indicator for the higherdecimal units to indicate approximately correctly the momentary value ofsaid units, means for locking said operating means in said indicatingposition, a 'sub unit setting element disposed to have freedom ofmovement relatively to said operating means I operating means toindicate the lower decimal values in exact subdecimal relation to thevalues indicated by the higher decimal unit indicator, a second settingelement yieldingly coupled, within given limits, with said operatingmeans and geared to the higher decto adjust said indicator to presentapproximately the correct momentary values, said second element having anumber 01' number oi values contained in the high decimal unitindicator, and a separately operable second positioning element disposedto engage between the teeth of said second setting element when thelatter has been adjusted in the approximately correct indicatingposition by said operating means, to position said 1 weighed secondsetting element and the indicator operated by it to exactly indicateeach value of the high decimal unit indicator.

- 3. In automatically indicating scales or the like, a numeral-settingmechanism comprising mal' wheel according to the load being weighed,

' so that the latter moves said setting pawl from and means for lockingsaid serratedwheel in. a toothed wheel coupled said adjusting position,with said serrated wheel and having elongated teethequal in number tothe number of values contained on said higher decimal unit setting pawlrotatably'mounted with respect to said toothed wheel and means foryieldingly holding said pawl in fixed neutral position, gearing betweensaid pawl and the lower decimal unit numeral wheels to rotate the latterone revolution when said 'pawl moves from one tooth of said toothedwheel to the next, a positioning pawl movably disposed in the operatingplane of said toothed wheel and of said setting pawl and outside meansfor operating said positioning pawl,

neutral position an angular distance, varying with wxthe prevailingposition of the wheel teeth relatively to the neutral setting pawlposition, until the positioning pawl engages a wheel tooth, whereby saidlower decimal numeral wheels are rotated from their no-value indicatingposition to present the proper numerical values represent. ing the exactsubdecimal values of the value presented by said higher decimal' wheel.

4. In automatically indicating scales or the like, a numeral-settingmechanism comprising numeral wheels for the higher and the lower dec-'imal place values to be indicated, a peripherally serrated wheeloperated by the load'. being weighed on the scale and connected to thehigher decimal wheel for adjusting the latter to present the propernumerical value of that decimal wheel according to the loadbeingweighed, means for locking said serrated wheel in said adjustingposition, a toothed wheel coupled with said serrated wheel and havingelongated teeth equal in number to the number of values contained onsaid higher decimal wheel, a sub-unit setting pawl rotatably mountedwith respect to said toothed wheel and means for yieldingly holding saidpawl in fixed neutral position, gearing between said pawl and the lowerdecimal place numeral wheels to rotate the latter one revolutionwhensaid pawl moves from one tooth of said toothed wheel to the next, apositioning pawl niovably disposed in the operating plane of saidtoothed wheel and of said setting pawl and outside means for operatingsaid positioning pawl, so. that the latter' moves said setting pawl fromneutral position an angular distance, varying with the prevailing "5. Inautomatically wheel, a sub- ,said second setting element,

unit indicator, being position of the wheel teeth relatively to the11811? tral setting pawl position, until the positioning pawl engages awheel tooth, whereby said lower decimal numeral wheels are rotated fromtheir no-value indicating position to present the proper numericalvalues representing the exact subdecimal values of the value presentedby said higher decimal wheel, and means on the tooth of said toothedwheel representing the no-value indicating position of said higherdecimal wheel for preventing said positioning pawl from moving saidsetting pawl from neutral position when said tooth is located in thepath of said positioning pawl.

indicating scales or the like, a numeral-setting mechanism comprising anumeral indicator for each be indicated, means actuated by thevalue-determining force of the scale for operating the numeral indicatorfor the higher decimal units digit of the value to to indicateapproximately correctly the momenmeans within a subdecimal range of themovement of said operating means and geared to operate the lowerdecimalunit numeral indicators to present the subdecimal portions of thehigher decimal unit value, a separately operable positioning element,controlled by said operating means for actuating said setting element toexactly set the lower decimal place'indicators in the proper subdecimalposition in accordance with the prevailing position of said operating-means to indicate the lower decimal values in exact subdecimal relationto the values indicated setting element yieldingly coupled, within givenlimits, with said operating means and geared to the higher decimal unitindicator to-adiust said by the higher decimal unit indicator, a secondindicator to present approximately the correct momentary values, saidsecond element having a number of teeth equal to the number of valuescontained in the high decimal unit indicator, and

a separately operable second positioning element disposed to engagebetween the teeth of said second setting element when the latter hasbeen adjusted in the approximately correct indicating position by saidoperating means, to position said second setting element and theindicator operated by it to exactly indicate the indicated value of thehigh decimal un it indicator, the tooth of representing the novalueindicating position of the higher decimal when said second positioningelement engages said bifurcated tooth portion, the higher decimal unitindicator is exactly set into and-locked in no-value indicatingposition.

CARL JOLAS.

WILLI STEIN.

bifurcated at its tip, so that w

